Menu

Who’s Kidding Who?

The death of Angus Macleod reminded us of the contribution trenchant journalism makes and how so much of what we consume in the conventional media pales by comparison. The thought arose when reading the Herald which contains a piece that marks the inauguration of the campaign to reinstate Labour as a credible party of progressiveness. (What would the Herald be without a regular dose of Bell and Macwhirter?) http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/columnists/lamont-is-right-to-put-focus-back-on-children.25534548 It is a Pollyanna piece in which we are invited to be glad – glad about Johann, glad about her policies and glad about Labour and (furrow brow with mock concern) glad that we can forget all about that dreadful referendum business.

Catherine MacLeod, former adviser to Alistair Darling, has opened the case for resurrecting both the Tory-reconciled Labour Party and the career of Johann Lamont whose invisibility during the referendum was matched only by her ineptitude when she did appear. That is not only my view, it is widely shared among the Labour-minded who couldn’t understand why MSPs, and especially their leader, played such a minimal role in what is after all a Scottish issue, albeit with UK ramifications.

I know many are tired of discussing the failed mainstream but we should be aware of what motivates them and the MacLeod article delivers, as ever, a clear pointer to Unionist thinking. First, it is to write off the past by dismissing the mendacious, hysterical and anti-politics campaign which the Union ran. It is consigned to history and no longer matters. It is time pretend that never happened. There was no threat, no bullying, no lying, no orchestration of foreign governments, the EU, NATO officials or businessmen. Labour didn’t really work hand in glove with the Tories, did they? Best forgotten.

Second, on the back of an SNP defeat, it is to promote relentlessly the interests of Unionism so it can reclaim the ascendancy and turn the dial back to Everything Normal.

Nominally the column is about childcare and how pleased we should all be that Johann has found the vision to put this grand idea centre stage. But in reality it is to praise the Union and devolution, admire its representatives and brush aside anything that deluded Yessers out there imagine is a changed landscape. When we say Things Will Never Be The Same Again, this piece says: Oh Yes, They Will.

So Lamont’s personal case is being supported here even as her own side plots her removal and the rest of Scotland scorns her failure.

And wait a moment…if Lamont is to be praised for promoting childcare now the referendum’s over, why aren’t we praising those who raised it first during the referendum – the SNP? Why is it laudable for a Labour leader today to major on a subject raised by the SNP eleven months ago? Surely, the story is Well Done, Johann – You’re Catching On.

Here’s a quote. ‘Ms Lamont’s credentials on social justice and equality are beyond doubt. She has fought for them all her political life. She knows too that the keys to prosperity are good health and education…’

Strange then with such credentials she has described universal benefits as ‘something for nothing’. Strange that she voted against free school meals (allowing there was an independence trap contained in the motion but Labour’s amendment still didn’t back free meals). Strange too that she opposed minimum pricing of alcohol, booze being one of the most deadly forces afflicting families.

As for equality, wasn’t it Johann who complained in the chamber that Nicola Sturgeon was a successful woman married to a successful man? Feminist solidarity, it wasn’t.

And didn’t she use a conference speech to venture to the edge of the acceptable when addressing a childless man… ‘But there is one thing which the First Minister has discovered this year. Women give birth to children. Then they look after them. So when his focus groups tell him women don’t like him he discovers childcare. It wasn’t exactly the same as Fleming discovering penicillin. Splitting the atom it was not but I suppose the First Minister learning anything about how real Scots live their lives is some sort of progress. I’m not going to give any theories about why the First Minister has a problem with women.’ That made many uneasy. Still, in the Herald this is all forgotten as Johann is recreated as Emily Pankhurst.

We could also forget that the SNP has been busy delivering on the childcare front. More than a quarter of two-year-olds get 600 hours a year of nursery care, the equivalent of 38 weeks of morning or afternoon session. All pupils in the first three years of primary get a free lunch.

Free childcare provision is being expanded to every two year-old from a workless household in Scotland – around 8,400 children or 15 per cent of all two-year-olds.

But then this is about Johann, not delivery in government.

One of the imponderables of Lamont’s scheme to limit the costs to 10 per cent of average earnings but there is no plan for meeting the cost yet when the SNP opened its offer this is what Kezia Dugdale said: ‘They’re writing policies on the bag of a fag packet. The proposals are uncosted and ill-thought through.’ I didn’t see that in the Herald…

Never mind, Catherine MacLeod tells us this is such a good Labour idea that Kezia went to Finland – home of a world standard education system to fact-find, clearly unaware that the SNP’s Mike Russell went there four years ago to do just that. In fact, I think he’s been more than once.

I too welcome Labour getting serious about policy issues, if they really are serious. As I say, I smell a subterfuge to defend Johann’s threadbare leadership. What I don’t like is uncritical PR spin which fails to ask why our childcare is so expensive in the first place and why small independent countries have better systems. (The answer is they control all tax and spend and set their own priorities which is what we would have with independence).

So there it is – the unchallenged support for a belated, uncosted policy we are all to salute in order to big up Johann and Labour. At the end of the item is the second part of the message. ‘Great energy was expended by both sides during the referendum debate. Hopefully that energy and political commitment will be channeled in a different direction to deliver the policy changes so many wanted to see.’

In other words, give up and stop your grassroots campaigns, demos and mass movements. Stop joining anti Union parties. Stop asking tricky questions. Leave it to the professionals and let us all go back to our comfort zone. We like to tell you what’s good for you and you should listen. After all, we’ve made such a good job of the country, haven’t we?

This is the classic evidence that they have learned nothing and will not deliver anything that meets Scotland’s aspirations. Labour is not being reborn either here or in England and there may be evidence from today’s by-elections that UKIP isn’t only eating into Tory votes but Labour ones too. The return of tired old Labour under tired old Johann is Unionist wishful thinking and wouldn’t have got past Angus Macleod if he’d been in the editor’s chair.

Or shes an android with a limited set of pre programmed answers. Look at milliband, hes obviously an old model that they couldn’t quite get to look right or work properly. They can’t even be arsed fixing him.

… and two days earlier she stated that the BBC is completely balanced and unbiased ! That statement proves that the BBC is either unbalanced and biased, or Ms White exists in a fantasy world – a place where all lies are true, and David Cameron is a wooly liberal who opposes greed.

They’re carrying on with the same mistake they have been making since 2007. Their narrow minded hatred/ fear of the SNP has paralysed their thinking. Rather than accepting the challenge and upping their game, they’ve carried on with petty accusations and dirty tricks. SLAB is full of third raters completely outmatched by the SNP.

So Kezia went to Finland did she? That being one of those Scandinavian countries we shouldn’t aspire to being like? That Finland? The same group of nations which have been roundly lampooned as a model example for anything when used by the SNP.

Well who knew?

Bullshit top to bottom from the Herald. Lamont is no leader of anything. Lamont is a British Labour place person with about as much pull in higher parliamentary circles as a two wheeled trike in a truck stop. That they are trying now to steal a flagship SG policy and claim it as their own is beyond infantile to say the least. That it is also touted by a Scottish title as wonderful should surprise no one considering their collective anti democratic stance throughout the referendum campaign.

This from the same people who want us to move on, get together and have warm hugs and handshakes round the campfire. Seriously?

They know what they can do with their lies, their policy theft, their place person and their warm handshakes then.

There should be no forgetting the actions of either our media or British Labour in the referendum. As the outcome ably underlined, 45% of our electorate went completely unrepresented by almost 100% of their media and the BT/Labour narrative went almost completely unchallenged for the entire period. That should have been a statistical impossibility in a healthy democracy.

We’re well onto their operating procedure now Helena and so are 45% of the country. Their problem is that as more and more of our predictions for the no vote are proved correct and more and more of their pledges crumble so will more of the other 55%.

We stay angry, we stay active and we stay united in opposition to the established order of politics and media. We cannot allow them to continue as they have been or to get away with anything. We do NOT go back in our box.

Most of us spent decades asleep Alex. Cynicism, apathy, disenchantment and in the end all that happened was that we left the foxes in charge of the hen house.

People are in for a rude awakening in the next couple of years and its the job of our shiny new media to let people know the whys and wherefores. I reckon its our job to point people towards that new media and give it as wide a coverage as possible. 🙂

I think it is worse than that. I think SLAB in particular are a political protection racket, they are essentially only concerned about their self preservation, and continuing to safeguard their status and lifestyles. Sure, Westminster would appeal to them because it is a much larger parliament, the British state is considerably more powerful than a Scottish state would be. This would appeal to their self importance. Lamont, Brown, Darling, Curran, Murphy, Alexander, Baillie etc, are all careerists, who have sold out all of their professed beliefs, ideas, and principles and have done so time after time. They have become so deluded that Lamont could say at the Labour conference in Manchester, without any trace of irony, that she and Labour exist to change the world! What they are is political nihilists, they will change their policies as soon as the Labour Party in London instruct them too.

Here is a last little thought: Imagine that a senior SNP political representative had made the same horrible childless jibes that Lamont did against Salmond and Sturgeon, about a SLAB leader? Imagine the reaction from the BBC in Scotland and the rest of the MSM? They would have been demanding resignations, the person responsible would have been hounded out of politics, and it would be in the headlines for days, possibly more than a week. Instead what did we get in terms of coverage? Sweet fuck all. That tells you how fucking corrupt BBC Scotland and the rest of the MSM are.

Absolutely Muttley, the labour lies, deception and manipulation, compounded by the msm and the bbc really do reflect an undemocratic and dangerous political climate coming from westminster. Lamont, surely she is a complete embarrassment and her verbal incompetency shows a deep lacking in uk politics regards employing the best candidates. In fact, it is likely quite deliberate that Lamont has been hoisted to her current position, it is extremely unwarranted and defies all logic,

Just occurred to me that slab could be described as the sevco of scottish politics, making snidey remarks/dodgy tackles because they know they’ll get away with it as the media/referees are on their side. Both good friends of orange order, israel, bnp, loyalist paramilitaries also.

A celebration of mediocrity. A celebration of how cool it is to be…well not all that visionary. It’s redefining vision and aspiration as being about appearing to have these qualities while promoting the opposite. Of course they want us to bend the knee, knuckle down, and start voting labour again. Forget about the sneers, the smears, that thing about you being a virus, or a blood and soil nationalist. Time to forget their tresspasses and own their failure. And really this is what these articles are about. Not just a puff piece for room meat passing itself off as statesmen like. Its really about the 45% accepting and owning completely the failure of the 55%. Back in 79 the tories totally owned the NO vote, while Labour slunked off in a corner to hide. They don’t want to be the only ones holding the tar baby called Union. They actually want to pass it off to us, while they carp, sneer and smear like they always have. They are the fair weather friends of Scotland, and frankly we need to get shot of them, open the windows and get the smell of their stupidity out of our lives.

You know it’s struck me, that the above was something I would reserved for the tories or ukip. That this is directed at labour, shows me how much this journey has changed me. Things have irrevocably changed. Nothing is ever going to be the same again. I always felt that yes or no, the union is finished. I didn’t think it would start unravelling so soon after their “historic” victory.

Well, I stopped getting the Herald the week after the referendum. I had been getting that paper delivered on a daily basis all my adult life and it saddens me so much that it came to the point where reading it just pissed me off; especially Magnus Gardham who never got any better as the referendum came closer. I gave the paper every chance and I especially enjoyed Ian Bell and Iain MacWhirter both of whom I will miss. I do still get the Sunday Herald which I’ve done since its inception. Radio Scotland’s another outlet that’s making every effort to get us all ‘back to normal’. Swinging between one potential government/administration and another (SNP/Labour): They now think it’s Labour’s turn but they have another thing coming. I, we (it’s far more than just me), will not go back into my box.

The sheer mendacity of Labour continues. Imagine stealing an SNP policy then passing it off as your own. Imagine decrying SNP initiatives like the visit to Finland, and the comparison with Finland, yet despising this when the SNP do this. As you say, they are going back to business as usual, are not reaching out to the 45, except to invite us into collective amnesia, and their fantasy world as the true rulers of Scotland. After 86 years, they still regard the SNP as an aberration. When are they going to get real?

I am wondering though whether Murphy has been offered promotion elsewhere though, for his efforts, that Macleod is now promoting Lamont? Something to be thankful for I suppose that he has possibly decided (or it has been decided) to quit the Holyrood scene.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. You’ve a stronger stomach than me, reading the Herald.

Can anybody confirm the rumours that sales of the Daily Record have taken a dip, post-refendum, after they pulled a stunt like The Vow?

The Labour Scottish polit bureau didn’t play much of a role in the referendum because their Lords and Masters in Westminster knew it would be a serious disadvantage to the pro-Unionists if they did, due to their lack of popularity here. Initially, they thought Darling would do the trick, but that didn’t work out, so they had to bring in Brown. Yes, they do want order and calm restored to Britain-shire.
I don’t think things can ever be the same again in Scotland, because when folk get politicised, it normally stays that way: they establish a new world view within, as many activists did during the Miner’s Strike, for example. Women, especially, retain all the experience they gain undertaking a fight, which is what it was. You become street wise and that’s no bad thing.
Love the quote about Johann’s credentials. She has stressed them herself on several occasions during the campaign! I’m surprised she seems to be against free school meals, having been a teacher herself and having seen the necessity in Scotland for that benefit. Interesting news today about the high child mortality in Scotland. The highest in Europe, apparently.
Muttley, I’ve been saying for years ScoLab is a jobs for the boys racket. Self importance is written all over their wee faces, so it is.

They do not need to get real. They have the BBC, and the rest of the MSM in Scotland to cover their arses constantly. When are SLAB and unionists ever held too account for their disinformation, either in the referendum campaign or just now? Why has Jackie Baillie never apologised for her smears on hospital infections? Why has Gordon Brown never apologised for his lies in the referendum, which caused a seriously ill women to climb up Edinburgh Castle, and put a Yes banner on the rock? Why was Darling allowed to escape much scrutiny after his Nazi accusation about the SNP, because that is what blood and soil nationalists were/are? The BBC in Scotland gave much more coverage to Salmond’s fairly bland comments on Putin, than they did to Darling’s on the SNP! I see a complete failure to hold SLAB in particular too account, they can say what they want, safe in the knowledge that they will not be pressed to explain, and defend their comments.

Naughty but I would help you. May I say how much I agree with the sentiments of both yourself Derek and with all those who have commented here. Labour are really a waste of space but given the amount of assistance they have received from the media they will still have their followers.

Remember the stated stance of the Herald a few days before the vote. It was to stay in the Union but to look critically at the Unionist promises and by implication to think again as to whether Scotland would be better being independent.

Magnus Gardham and Catherine MacLeod (former political adviser to Alistair Darling and great friend of Alistair’s wife) have gone out on a limb in their anti-SNP stance. It will be fun to watch them squirm when Brown’s near federalism amounts to no more than a hill of beans.

For light entertainment I suggest everybody watch today’s FMQs and see that no-mark James Kelly of the two brain cells get a flea in his ear from Alex Salmond for challenging the decision to hand the rail franchise to a Dutch company when the constraints under which franchising is done are wholly the product of a previous Labour goverment who had ample opportunity to allow public sector bids from Scottish companies but chose not to.

Must not forget that slab and all unionists have a winning formulae, the BBC MSM, they will do everything possible to win the game for them as was proved by the Ref result, this is only going to get much much worse as they happily peddle their lies and deceit to the people of Scotland to a level as yet considered unthinkable. Just wait, as is said you aint seen anything yet

If you have done dirty wee things you are ashamed of it is natural to want to try to forget them as soon as possible and put them out of your mind while putting on a public face that everything is as normal. But you know bloody fine what you have done is nothing to be proud of and no matter how hard you try it will always haunt you in the wee quiet moments when your sense of common humanity gets a chance to play on you and you think “Christ whit huv a done?”. To have been part of that team which wilfully perverted the course of your country’s destiny through all the range of sick dishonest undemocratic means employed by the NO campaign must take some living with if you have a single ounce of that humanity in you.

They know very well what they have done or what they tacitly supported being done in their cause and they are trying now to “coorie in the gither” and deny the shame of it. They can stick together like shit in the neck of a bottle for mutual support if they like but they know the full shocking reality of what the NO campaign stood for – the whole neoliberal package of power and wealth for the few at the expense of the poorest and most vulnerable in society. They also see that chasm grow ever deeper since the 18th. “Christ whit huv a done”. You would think that question would penetrate at least some of their hides soon.

When is one of them going to have the guts to face up publicly to what they allowed to be done in their name and denounce it. A whistle blower from that camp will probably never appear but wouldn’t it be interesting if one of them was far enough up the chain of creation to have a back bone. They know full well the inherent malice of the NO campaign. It was riddled with it.

May it haunt them mercilessly for the rest of their days if they cannot cannot cleanse themselves by admitting publicly that it was wrong and hope to live the rest of their lives cooreying doon the gither from their collective shame and pretending it did not happen. No matter how much they try history won’t forget them and what they did to their own country.

Totally agree wi yer sentiments there Dunkie.
Unfortunately the world we live in, controlled by big corporations and a media with more than a vested interest in keeping the masses under the thumb will make sure that no matter how bad it gets, even if the whole of society breaks down, it would be ten times worse under independence.
And ken whut!! …there’s enough ba haided numpties oot there ti swallae a the guff they can muster.
The referendum campaign opened meh ehs!
No amount o bandying aboot facts and figures will sway the entrenched. They don’t want to know. Whut’s yer plan B. Wur too wee. Wull lose wur pensions. Eh hae friends doon sooth. The list is endless and eh am convinced that people who said they’d vote yes, turned their backs on Scotland in the booth and put their ferkin X in the NO box.
The good news is that the 45% WILL eventually gain control of all our powers because we are active. There must be countries round the world who achieved independence with a lesser number pro’s.
Step 1 is to get rid of as many pro union lackies at the general election.
Then, with some good fortune, by holding the balance of power, make the probable Tory Govt squirm with, let’s be honest, some outrageous demands for Scotland. How about electrifying trains all the way from Inverness to the Borders? High speed helicopter flights (heavily subsidized of course by UK taxpayer) to the Islands.
Just don’t expect it to be reported in the MSM.
Yes we hae a lot ti look forward ti 🙂

They think they “won” the referendum. What they actually did was to deny Scots their right to self-determination, and in the process pissed off 45% of the voters to the extent they are still organising and activist.

And we now no longer believe a word they say, so their spin is falls on deaf ears.

Once the Unionist parties are at each others throats again, the 55% divided between them leaves them pretty weak.

Derek – excellent article illuminating and explaining the agenda behind the words – but read by whom ? The converted on this website only. I’m afraid we are in for another major disappointment in 2015 unless we get some newsprint on the streets, in the cafes, on the buses and trains in hospitals on campuses – all revolutions (and we are one in the making) got their message out to the proletariat through their papers and leaflets that could not be simply ignored by the people, as websites can be. We all seem to have fallen for the mantra “online media is the future” – maybe, but that future isnae here yet : i think i’m right in saying there are 700,000 tabloids sold everyday in scotland – all of them will push the labour party in order to re-instate ‘business as usual’. Online sites are simply not enough to counter this – we need a presence out there.

Thank you ,Derek, for yet another excellent article. How you manage to read through all that nonsense beats me – but thankful you are willing to do so!

Scottish Labour is finished. Normally, between elections, they are given time to turn their promises and declarations inside out in order to slowly draw the electorate towards their new stance. Not this time. The leap from a referendum in September to an election in May is proving too much. There is not enough time for people to forget. Which means that instead of appearing to be intellectual wizards, even to the least critical, they simply look ridiculous. In other words, AS has trapped and caught the lot.

Lets be honest if any politician had called the voters of there country Stupid as Johann did
Then a fair press would hound them out of power
That she never even had to apologise
Tells you all you need to know, about the media here and its ties with labour

“That is not only my view, it is widely shared among the Labour-minded who couldn’t understand why MSPs, and especially their leader, played such a minimal role in what is after all a Scottish issue, albeit with UK ramifications.”

They didn’t need to make much effort, given they had the BBC faithfully pumping their message into our living rooms/kitchens/cars on a daily basis.

From a charitable perspective J Lamont makes me ponder the term ’emotional congruence’. Her body language and increasingly grim visor-like expression lead me to believe she’s experiencing inner turmoil and conflict. How does it feel to be at the helm of a party which offers zero social change or reform I wonder?

And at which point did career and power motivation tip her over into acceptance of Labour’s failings, which have had such damaging consequences, not just nationally in terms of the NHS for example, but internationally? I seriously wonder how Sturgeon can stop herself from spitting when Lamont goes on about NHS funding. Ok Lamont. let’s have PFI then, yay.

Oh well, before long she may have to tolerate the description ‘Alex Salmond, the Rousseau of Scotland, Father of the Scottish revolution’!

I think Labour in Scotland particularly, have totally lost the plot. For the last 30 years their No. 1 enemy has been the SNP, not the Tories, not the right, not capitalism, not neoliberal economics, but a party that fought for self-determination. I don’t know about you, but the biggest liars I have found in life are those who so completelt believe their own lies, that they cease to be aware that they are lying. They have created an alternative universe in which they inhabit, and they refuse to let reality anywhere near it.

The visor like appearance of Lamont’s mask is that determination to deny reality; that the SNP are not an aberration, but part of the political mainstream; that independence is not some evil perversion, but the natural aspiration of human beings and human society. That Scotland is a nation, but the UK a forced construct.

I heard a clip of Louise White this morning and had a vision of some wee soul stuck listening to the radio taking note of the buzzwords on behalf of Labour. This would then be produced as SLABs meat on the bones. Jeannie from Carntyne used the word ‘pathway’, that sounds like we have a plan , let’s use that
As far as the Herald piece is concerned, once more a newspaper is promoting Labour in this case not because johann Lamont warrants it but because she is Labour.
If Ruth Davidson ( God forbid ) was promoting this would she get a personal endorsement in The Herald.
Personally, I’m sick to the back teeth of the great and the good using their influence to keep the mediocre in place right throughout Scotland.
Whether that be the Union rep, the lousy MP or the incoherent MSP , the BBC or STV , we deserve better.
Heres one that will certainly campaign my socks off for a pro Indy party for the GE and on days beginning with S I’ll work even harder to tell anybody and everybody just how toxic Labour is.

DrewSword says:
9 October, 2014 at 11:33 pm
The MSM and BBC totally against SG and Scotland. WOS, NNS Bella and Online news still not accessed by Scottish Public in great enough numbers to swing NO voters.
Time to take to the streets all over Scotland. Marches for Freedom.
Make Saturday morning shoppers take note all of the above by way of flyers, handouts etc

Yes, we have to get the message out onto the streets. But, we also have to bring together all the Indy online presences under one portal. It has to be easy to find all the different voices, otherwise it’s just relying on luck to discover a Bateman or a Wings etc. There’s no point having a few hundred or even a few thousand following one or two bloggers when there are probably dozens out there all doing their best to energise the 45 and struggling to reach the 55.

In vast swathes of policy areas Johann is frankly inept. Childcare appears to be one of the few that she can at least hold her own on (although even there she ends up delivering a few low blows to the FM and DFM). The Herald doesn’t seem to have acknowledged the elephant in the room.

I wish we still had Margo here – she would’ve chowed her up and spat her out. We are only sucking our own co….ntributions here. We desperately need a daily newspaper and broadcaster for that demographic which only believes what it sees in front of them. We are currently only talking to ourselves.

I’m SO glad I stopped buying/reading the Herald sometime ago, with idiots like Gardham getting full rein to smear the SNP and the SG, and now this MacLeod person getting on the wagon.
To those who talk about our lack of newsprint and broadcast exposure, I still think the we need an “”attack dog” who in letters to the Editors refutes unionist claims, and who insists on appearing on radio and TV for the same reasons. Refusal by papers and broadcasters to print/air these rebuttals to be raised at FMQs, assuming OFCOM will do nothing as usual.
When Nicola shuffles her Cabinet, perhaps she could give Alex Neil this job, or someone else who can fight the good fight.
GMS on BBC is trying to put itself forward as a wonderful feature, but unfortunately doesn’t see the irony in its claim to “be a programme like no other”. Quite.

The problem is that those in control of the media decide whether letters get printed or Below the Line comments get deleted. No point in making a comment about the blatant pro Lanour bias of Magnus Gardham if Magnus Gardham’s colleague has the say in whether it gets heard.

[#%*€%$!!] those who are politically aware to understand how large a proportion of the population are inert consumers of news. Unfortunately, given the demographic of No voters, it’s the older people who are most ingrained in their habits.

The only way to reach these people is via a newspaper or TV channel which gives unbiased news along with other material which makes people want to buy\consume it. Nobody is going to buy a paper which merely pumps out pro indy propaganda. That’s why I wrote to the Scottish Statesman to urge them to drop their description of themselves a pro independence news source.

To achieve this is going to take some serious money which only the likes of Jim McColl or Brian Souter has access to. Best way of all is to buy over an existing operation such as the Scotsman and use it as a vehicle.

I agree with you about mdm & need for our own newspaper. But it would be cheap for someone to set up an internet portal from where you could access all the pro-indy bloggers, news outlets etc, instead of making it a matter of luck to find them. You arrive on the landing page and there’s links to Derek, Wings, Bella and so on and a précis of what each site is about etc. Someone internet savvy could get it to the top of google.

The buzz seems to be that labour want jim murphy in lamonts job. Shows how far removed
from reality they. The guy made a complete arse of himself touring th country lying to pensioners. A sorry excuse fir a human being.

OK we may be preaching to the converted but I’m still very grateful for having this forum and Derek’s comments. Firstly, we should make an effort to buy the Sunday Herald every week – try to boost its sales. Many of us are stopping our weekly papers too, but the power of BBC Jockland is main problem. Do you think for a minute that the unionists will let broadcasting be devolved?

I naughtily had a look at the Scotsman yesterday whilst in local cafe – Bill Jamieson’s article on proud NO Edinburgh was so weak and without evidence – nightmare!

There used to be a word that was mentioned a lot in the media — integrity. Wonder what happened to it!

These sites may be talking to the converted, but we need their sanity to recharge, share frustrations, pass on information and share views about what to do next, otherwise we’d just bang our heads off the nearest wall.

I don’t think childcare is “one of the few she can hold her own on” when her party support benefit cuts in general and would cap rises in child benefit to 1% per annum for the next tow or three years (a 1% cap being the equivalent of a 2% cut). This will have a profound effect on the physical, mental and social well being of our most vulnerabl children.
In any case Lesley Riddoch set out a manifesto for childcare in her excellent book Blossom long before Johann woke up and smelt the coffee.
And of course even Lesley’s manifesto is based largely on what Scandinavian countries take for granted and have been doing for years.
But rUK (and a substantial number of Scots) don’t think we’ve got anything to learn from Scandinavia, other than what do all those strange Ikea names actually mean…

I can afford about ten quid a month and looking to give to a couple of pro indy causes/publications but it seems that every other day another good cause appears on the scene. There is you/Newsnet, Bella, Commonweal, Wingy, Scottish Statesman, Dateline boys and any number of others.

How the heck do I decide where I will get most bang for my buck or should I wait for a couple of months?

Hi Bunter. There is aye something. Perhaps Derek would like to speak at the MacLean Rally? Life goes on and the struggle is far from over.

The annual JOHN MACLEAN COMMEMORATION will take place on Sunday 30 November 2014.
Meet 1pm at Eastwood Cemetery, Thornliebank Road Next to Thornliebank Railway Station, for short Graveside orations from Gerry Cairns (John Maclean Society) and Alan Stewart (International Officer, SRSM).
There will then be a march from opposite the cemetery gates Thornliebank Rd. Boydston Rd to the John Maclean Cairn at Shawbridge Arcade. The march will move off at 1.30pm prompt.
This will then be followed by a social/rally with speakers at the Shawbridge Tavern, 231 Shawbridge St.
The lively band “Uisqueabach” will be playing.
Anne Gomez, the Scottish folk singer (her recent album “Roch the Wind” includes the John Maclean March) has offered to sing.
And there will be a magician, Amazin’ Jason Kelly.
Please support this event.
Admission £5. Children Free.http://www.scottishrepublicansocialistmovement.orghttp://scottishrepublicans.myfreeforum.org/

No powers of any consequence will be devolved by London EVER, let me assure you. The revenues from whisky and oil are simply too enormous to let go of. If London lost these enormous revenues, the UK would be instantly bankrupt! London has already been forward spending the proceeds of oil and whisky for years now-how do you think cross rail, m25, and multitudes of other grandiose projects benefiting no-one but southern england have been financed, ffs!!

The ONLY way Scotland is to move forward would be to “chip round the edges” of the remaining 5% we require to bring us up to 50% yes- however, most Scots regard the union as a comfort blanket and their mindset will not change-the younger Scots will be our salvation.

Forget this commission-its only purpose is to delay, obscure, and ultimately deliver sfa to the Scottish peoples.

Nigel
we need around 15-18% of Scots NO’s (as opp to transient/migrant people with a vote) to transfer to YES – lets say 20% to be safe. I think over say a 10 year period that is achievable ? Some posts including my own sound as if we are still fighting the referendum, but in my view the Scots Gov and us YES people must take the view that the opportunity might arise so we need to be in a much more prepared state than before 18/09. We already have the BOE admitting it wid’ve backed a scots pound – so is it possible to have a scottish currency within the union ? can we set up a scottish central bank ? – could we set up a scottish navy ? possibly get guarantees of EU acceptance if secession occurs ? we have gotti explore all possibilities no matter how daft they sound while at the same time building the confidence of the scottish people.

so is it possible to have a scottish currency within the union ? can we set up a scottish central bank ? – could we set up a scottish navy ? possibly get guarantees of EU acceptance if secession occurs ?

Leginge-forget semantics! The success of the referendum is that prior to that, for most Scots, the “union” was totally off their radar-now its a new ball game inasmuch as the Scots have had their eyes wide opened as to the true meaning of the union, and have been astounded at their humble place in it.

That, combined with the likelihood of the SNP continuing to make inroads into the westmidden parliament, and the collapse of the SLAB’s, will give the SNP the confidence to declare a further referendum within 3 or 4 years. This will not be acceptable to London though, so it will have to be done illegally.

After all, progress in the UK has ONLY come about through illegal acts-for instance, womens voting rights would never have happened if women had complied with the rule of law back then. In addition, the SNP would aver that Scotland, being a nation in its own right, have no reason to accept rules laid down by London.

Scotland is going to become more and more ungovernable from London in the future. A minor example is the thousands of Scots who are presently watching TV illegally, to the extent that London considers it a waste of time actively pursuing these folks.

London, on the 19th of September, breathed a massive sigh of relief and assumed the Scots were “put back in their box” for another generation-Time will prove how wrong they were!

Okay, I know I keep banging on about an independent newspaper and broadcaster easily accessable by those No voters who have no online access, but if we are to win a return to Scotland as an independent nation, we need an ingress to this demographic.
Is there no way of crowd-funding the buy up of shares in one of the failing Scottish newspapers, to get rid of the current owners/staff and put a fair and unbiased construct in place?

I hear what you say Pam. We wouldn’t even need to restaff it. Just ensure it called out and exposed all the LabConDem lies for all to see but also wasn’t frightened to pull up the pro-indy parties when that was needed too.

We have to face it Pam, if it’s a newspaper which is already set up, then the recipe for mis-management of information, complete lies and corruption exists. The same as our Scottish parliament. There is no doubt in my mind that we need to shake off old worn out methods that hinder our journey towards a truthful well informed society with all information made available to help people make informed decisions. Our education is so unbalanced, we are now taught how to behave in industry and business. Politics is no longer a vocation, it is a career, and we can clearly see who benefits from that. We are told what is news worthy and if you look back over some of Derek’s blogs we can see that while reporting the news, may be truthful at journalist level, it can always be re-written in some examples to reflect something that is so far from the truth as to be a fairy story! Journalism is taught in this way. The hero will always be someone who is within the ruling classes,(you know, the 42% of them that run the country)and the baddies will always be foreign, (after Scots I think it’s Syria and Iraq at the moment) We need to move away from formulas of the past and start inventing our own, this must happen in all areas of our lives. You never know, if we set up something that is so different from the usual, then it will be a very clever person that will be able to infiltrate such a system and debase it with lies. Perhaps they will find the changes so against what they want, that it will be unworkable to have Scotland remain in Britain. Maybe a research department within a paper that critically evaluates the stories and stamps the articles as being truthful, not just an omniscient, biased editor/owner who chooses what he wants rather than the real news. I think any journalistic article will be coloured by the journalist his/her point of view, a research department with responsibility for a balanced view would help.